Citizen science projects that supercharge knowledge of the reef

The Reef Ecologic team have been involved in snorkelling, diving, fishing, beach walking and citizen science for many years at may locations and sites with many amazing collaborators from government, business, academic, diving, photography, NFP and traditional owners. We have learned, trained and applied simple and complicated tools including Reef Health Impact Survey (RHIS), Eye of the Reef, Coral Watch, Baited Remote Underwater Videos (BRUVs), Reef Life Survey transects, Reef Check Australia transects, Redmap, SeagrassWatch, MangoveWatch and iNaturalist.

The primary tool we are loving at the moment is iNaturalist because it is simple to use with a phone/camera or computer, applies to all species, is well supported by expert identifiers and you can create targeted projects that involve many people and supercharge your marine skills and knowledge.

Four fabulous citizen science projects that we recommend for you are:

Fish of Queensland

A compilation of citizen science observations of ray -finned fish in Queensland. This is an educational resource to share knowledge about species identification, distribution and assist scientists and managers. To date there have been 47,113 observations of 1503 species by 1,867 observers and 1,177 identifiers. Most observed species is the Lemon damselfish (Figure 1)

Citizen science at Museum of Underwater Art, John Brewer Reef

A citizen science database for snorkelers and SCUBA divers to record fish, sharks, turtles, invertebrates, corals, algae and interesting observations. We believe that the MOUA / Museum of Underwater Art is the largest (most observations and species) citizen science project for a reef in the whole of the GBR which comprises over 3000 reefs.

Reef Blitz

Reef Blitz is an annual event that brings together divers, fishers, scientists, students, conservationists and multiple citizen science programs to help Queensland communities collect a snapshot of information relevant to reef health.

This is an infographic to explain how ReefBlitz works and how to get involved

Traditional owners collaborating with citizen science on sea country

The Woppa Al-li Sea Country project is a?collaboration between Woppaburra Traditional Owners, Reef Ecologic, FutureFeed, CQUniversity, Wide Bay Pacific and Keppel Dive and snorkel to share traditional and scientific knowledge and encourage learning about marine species.

One of the ways to view iNaturalist projects is the information on people who have made observations and how many species. In this case the main contributors for this project so far are Adj Prof Adam Smith FARLF FEIAZ CEnvP , Georgia Hodgson and Rachelle Brown

How you can help and next steps

You can help yourself, your community and ultimately the environment by joining a citizen science project and sharing knowledge about species. So your time is valuable and together many observations by many people result in hundreds, thousands and millions of data points over space and time.

If you love field activities you may consider joining the 2023 Citizen Science of the Great Barrier Reef Expedition in October (limited spaces) with Coral Expeditions. Or be a virtual or online citizen scientist and assist with data analysis with Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage

You can also donate money to groups who voluntarily lead and manage positive projects for the community. Here is an example for support for ReefBlitz